and which Martin had brought from the office that morning. It contained
an account of the failure of the Abbey Bank.
The news spread quickly through Avonlea, and all day friends and
neighbors thronged Green Gables and came and went on errands of kindness
for the dead and living. For the first time shy, quiet Matthew Cuthbert
was a person of central importance; the white majesty of death had
fallen on him and set him apart as one crowned.
When the calm night came softly down over Green Gables the old house was
hushed and tranquil. In the parlor lay Matthew Cuthbert in his coffin,
his long gray hair framing his placid face on which there was a little
kindly smile as if he but slept, dreaming pleasant dreams. There were
flowers about him--sweet old-fashioned flowers which his mother had
planted in the homestead garden in her bridal days and for which Matthew
had always had a secret, wordless love. Anne had gathered them and
brought them to him, her anguished, tearless eyes burning in her white
face. It was the last thing she could do for him.
The Barrys and Mrs. Lynde stayed with them that night. Diana, going to
the east gable, where Anne was standing at her window, said gently:
Anne dear, would you like to have me sleep with you tonight?
Thank you, Diana. Anne looked earnestly into her friend s face. I
think you won t misunderstand me when I say I want to be alone. I m not
afraid. I haven t been alone one minute since it happened--and I want to
be. I want to be quite silent and quiet and try to realize it. I can t
realize it. Half the time it seems to me that Matthew can t be dead; and
the other half it seems as if he must have been dead for a long time and
I ve had this horrible dull ache ever since.
Diana did not quite understand. Marilla s impassioned grief, breaking
all the bounds of natural reserve and lifelong habit in its stormy rush,
she could comprehend better than Anne s tearless agony. But she went
away kindly, leaving Anne alone to keep her first vigil with sorrow.
Anne hoped that the tears would come in solitude. It seemed to her a
terrible thing that she could not shed a tear for Matthew, whom she had
loved so much and who had been so kind to her, Matthew who had walked
258